Roma! Vini, vidi, vici
Trip Start
Dec 27, 2007
1
78
80
Trip End
Dec 28, 2008
Rome,
Lazio,
Italy
Monday, August 18, 2008
We stayed in a camping ground at Prima Porta, a 30 min train ride from Rome's centre, at Tiber Camping, a nice green, spacious area with a restaurant-bar, mini-mart and swimming pool. We had our own room, which was half of a caravan, shared with nice guy Paul from Austin, Texas. When I say shared, there was a paper-thin wall between us, so we could hear anything the other half was doing, and the whole place shooked when any of us walked around!
Our first excursion was to the grand Colosseum. You come out of the subway station, and there it is, right in front of you. You look up at three stories of ancient stone in awe. You queue for 45 minutes in the intense, blazing Mediterranean sun, and finally you're there, walking out as the gladiators, slaves, criminals and wild animals would have, to an enormous amphitheatre for 55 000 people. People all around you, a screaming sea of faces, eager for blood to be spilled in this most famous of arenas, most brutal of spectacles.
It is quite damaged/decayed when compared to the brilliantly-preserved amphitheater at Pompei, but it is amazing that in the open air, subject to storms, sun, earthquakes and pillaging (apparently a lot of its stone was used to build St Peter's), so much of it still remains. The floor of the arena is no longer there, so you can see the labrynthine network of passages and spaces for trapdoors and contraptions and scary animals that lay underneath. A very impressive feat of architecture and construction.
I hated to think of the brutality of what went on here, for both the humans and the animals. At the opening of the Colosseum, Nero slaughtered 9000 wild animals, but the record for a single event is 11 000 animals and 10 000 humans. How especially terrifying it must have been for those thrown into this arena against their will. What a horrible way to die. It was interesting learning more about the voluntary gladiators: those who chose to do this as a path to fame and glory, or as a means to break out of slavery. They only fought, on average, 2 fights a year, so their life expectancy of 34 is higher than you might have thought (and not much lower than average life expectancy at the time).
From the Colosseum, we passed through the impressive Constantine Arch and walked down to the Roman Forum, the heart of Ancient Rome. It was really neat to stand there and look around, seeing remnants of the Senate, the temples, and other buildings that comprised the social, political and economic centre of the city/state/empire. It was great timing too, because over the past few months we've been watching the acclaimed series, Rome, on DVD (first season is great, deteriotes over second season). We could imagine the characters going about their wheeling and dealing and backstabbing, and see the buildings as they would have been in their prime.
We left the Forum to walk back past the Colosseum and around the bottom of the Palatine, where the aristocrats, politicians and emperors lived, and down to the Circus Maximus. From the circus we the residence of the Emperor for many generations. The circus is now just a straight strip of land with a large bank on one side, opposite the Palatine hill, with a kind of guard tower or some building of significance fenced off at the end. This was where the parades and triumphs of the emperors would be held.
Just down from the Circus Maximus, on the banks of the River Tevere, was the Aventine, a thriving suburb of markets and plebs, and where two of our favourite characters from Rome lived. Well, there's not much remaining but it was cool to go there, and the river looks lovely winding its way through the city, with high stone walls rising from its banks and leafy, green trees hanging down over them.
Day two was the Vatican City. We thought we'd better do that before we ran out of energy.
We started off with St Peter's Square and Basilica. The Square was very impressive - a huge concrete area with a big obelisk in the middle and ringed by rows of Corinthian columns. The queue to get into the Basilica went more than half way round the square. You can just imagine what the atmosphere must be like when it is full of a hundred thousand faithful come to see His Holiness.
Was getting a bit worried that I wouldn't be allowed inside, due to all the signs telling you - no singlets, no shorts! I was wearing both and didn't bring any extra clothing. Stressing out more and more as the line progressed around the square, just a few meters from the door I remembered that I was carrying the two little summer dresses I'd just bought at a street stall. So I pulled one up over my shorts and wrapped the other one around my shoulders. Not very coordinated or comfortable, but modest and certainly colourful!
Inside, St Peter's was stunning. When you have some of the best minds and hands of the Renaissance working on your church, it blimmin well should turn out something special - and it has. The marble columns, flooring and sculptures give a sense of grandiosity, although Michelangelo's first well-known work, La Pieta, of Christ on the Magdalene's lap, (the only one he ever signed) is very soft and poignant.
The ceilings, if not decorated by some famous artist's fresco, are a maze of gold detailing - so much gold, so much work! I am still, despite my education and travels, gob-smacked by the wealth of the Catholic Church. Have rather ambivalent feelings about it too, but that's another essay. Every cupola/dome is painted in some colourful scene, with saints, clouds and angels. Bernini's centrepiece above St Peter's tomb stands majestically in the centre of the building: four twisted pillars climbed by a golden vine, reaching up to a richly detailed and beautifully sculptured pagoda-style top - gosh, I really don't have the vocabulary for this! It's certainly the most amazing church I've ever seen - the Iguazu Falls of churches: once you've seen it, there's little point in seeing any others.
A short walk around the corner, we arrived at the Vatican Museums. Apparently there are 6 kms of gallery space, and you could spend days there doing it justice, but we didn't have days, just half a one, so we headed straight for the Renaissance wing, and the Sistine Chapel via the Gallery of Maps. Well, I just continued to be blown away by the beauty, the intricacy, the colour, the lavishness, the creativity and the craftmanship of the artwork, and, particularly, the ceilings. The Gallery of Maps must be over 100m long and all the way, the arched ceiling is decorated with gold filigree and scenes out of history or The Bible. The whole way! Man they put a lot of effort into their ceilings.
With a sore neck from constantly looking up, we arrived at the fabled Sistine Chapel. It really is a work of art. Michelangelo's fresco the length of the ceiling, depicting the creation myth, is so bright and clear and vivid, and I felt really privileged to be able to see such a beautiful piece of art. Almost as impressive, and longer in the making at seven years, is his enormous fresco above the altar, The Last Judgement. It is massive, and detailed, and busy, and blue, (predominantly, with the sky) but it didn't make the impact on me that the ceiling did. All the walls are also brightly frescoed by many other famous artists of the Renaissance with scenes, once again from history or The Bible. The Chapel was full of course, and security guards were constantly barking at us not to take photos and not to talk, but they were basically ignored, poor things.
After splitting up from Ray and getting a little lost - another trip down the long Gallery of Maps - I finally found the Raphael Rooms, three rooms housing wall-size frescoes by the famous Renaissance artist. My favourite piece was The School of Athens, a homage to the great authors, philosophers, scientists and mathematicians of ancient Greece. Plato and Aristotle walk side by side discussing their theories, while Pythagoras, Ptolemy and Zoroaster explain their theses to interested admirers. I think Homer is in there as well, and the cheeky Raphael has even painted himself into the bottom left corner, amongst these great men.
As I said, there is so much to see in these museums, and we didn't see it all, but I think you can only appreciate so much art in one day and I didn't want to undermine my memories of the beautiful things I had seen with a huge quantity of other surely worthy stuff. Needless to say, at the end of the day we were beat, and that strawberry gelato went down a treat. I cooled off back at the campground with a dip in the pool, until it was invaded by twenty French teenagers.
Being knackered from two full-on days of touristing, we decided to have a quieter day on the third day, so Ray just mucked around the lovely campground, but I went into Rome to get a look at Bernini's Fountain of Four Rivers. It is supposed to be his best fountain, depicting allegories of the four great rivers of the known world at the time - the Ganges, Danube, Nile and Plate - around a huge obelisk. Yes, really looking forward to this although it was another stinkin hot day and I was really tired. Well. I take the long, hot, stuff train ride in, then get the Metro for a short ride, then walk 10 or so blocks down to Piazza Navona, and what do I find? Oh they've decided to cover the wee thing up while they do restoration work on it! I mean, it was like the Acropolis - I understand that they have to work on these old things from time to time to keep them in good nick, but I just wish they wouldn't do it when I want to look at them! I mean, I've come half way round the world for Christ's sake! Day three, disappointment. Hit the pool again.
Last day: Trevi Fountain - big is better! Pantheon - is this thing really 2000 years old? Let's start with the Pantheon, built 1st C AD on the site believed to be where the spirit of Romulus, founder of Rome, ascended to the heavens, and built in honour of all the Roman gods. It has a classical portico out the front, but the building itself is circular, with a huge semi-spherical dome ceiling. The engineering required at the time to build such a structure was quite advanced. It has a large, circular hole at the top through which the sun shines and spirits can pass into the afterlife (well, you'd hope you'd be going up!) In the many altars around the walls were once placed statues to the Roman gods, but when the building was Christianised, these were replaced by statues of Christian saints. It certainly makes you aware of the parallels between Roman/Greek polytheism and Christianity (well, Catholicism anyway) and makes you wonder, as Leon Uris suggested in Trinity, is Catholicism really still a monotheistic religion?
The building is in incredible condition for its age. We kept thinking, this surely can't be the original stonework? The exterior looks appropriately weathered and slighly crumbly, but the interior is immaculate - the smooth marble shines, there's not a crack in the complex concrete ceiling, and all-in-all, it could have been built last year. Another unique and very impressive Roman building.
The Trevi Fountain was another wonder of Rome. Certainly the grandest fountain my eyes have ever laid eyes on. It was built in 1762, but is still big and white and beautiful. As a backdrop Nicola Salvi designed a huge wall, with a classical triumphal arch standing out, bedecked with statues. In the water in front stands Neptune, proud and strong, flanked by two Tritons, wrestling with beasts of the sea. The water flows off these impressive stone figures and into a pool at the bottom, where it settles, crystal-clear. The monument is at once powerful and sturdy, eternal and yet fluid, as if it could change shape or direction at any time. There were hundreds of people there of course (including a procession of white-habitted nuns) but the fountain created an oasis of serenity where you felt that your experience wasn't lessened by having to share it with them.
So that was Rome.
MMM....One M for each millenium
Magnificent
Majestic
Magical.
I am so glad I have been and I have seen.
Vini, vidi.
Comments
What a busy day!
You guys accomplished a lot. Your campsite sounds hysterical, what an experience!
Louise Brown
TravelPod Community Manager